First Look: ThinkCentre A61e Ultra Small Desktop

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{ad}Just a few days ago Lenovo made a number of headlines when they announced their newest desktop, the ThinkCentre A61e. This “Ultrasmall Form Factor” system is not only small, but it was touted as Lenovo’s most efficient desktop. A lot of the excitement about it was because it was said that the system could be powered by an optional solar panel, but the bigger news was that this desktop surpasses the EPA’s Energy Star 4.0 criteria and that it received gold status from EPEAT. Small form factor fans were probably the most impressed by the fact that they were seeing a Mini-ITX system from Lenovo that started at $399.

The A61e’s case comes in at a small, but not incredibly tiny, 10.5″ x 3″ x 9″ or, according to Lenovo, 4.5L. This is not quite as small as you can get with a custom Mini-ITX system, but it’s quite good for a major manufacturer. The reason it is not quite as small as some of the Mini-ITX systems we have seen in the past is because Lenovo chose to cut costs and use a few standard desktop components, including a 3.5″ disk and a 5.25″ optical drive. The motherboard is Lenovo’s own design, but sticks to the Mini-ITX standard 17cm x 17cm and has no PCI expansion slots.

Looking more closely at the exterior we can see that the system is relatively barebones. The front has access to the optical drive, some venting, and a simple front I/O, but there is no card reader. The rear has four USB slots, ethernet, sound jacks, the power input, and a VGA-out. Interestingly there is no DVI output or legacy ports for the printer, mouse, or keyboard. The rear is also home to the system’s only fan which will pull heat out of the system when necessary (as indicated by a heat sensor near the RAM) but still keeps the A61e nearly silent. The case itself can be used horizontally or vertically and is strong enough to place a significant amount of weight on it- much more than an LCD display if you would like.

The A61e is built around a single hinge so opening it up is as simple as pushing a switch and separating the two sections. Inside the highlights include the Lenovo motherboard, two SODIMM (notebook-style) memory slots, two SATA connections, and a fanless heatpipe-cooled heatsink. Beneath the heatsink is an AMD processor, in this case the BE-2350, but it could also be a Sempron LE. The 3.5″ SATA hard drive and the optical drive are on the top half of the system and are neatly wedged into place. The disk can be removed without the use of tools.

We did not get a change to complete testing on the system yet, but so far the Vista Experience scores (not always ideal indicators) are making things looks like the A61e will be a very solid system for day-to-day tasks. The overall experience score is 3.0, which is due to the low gaming graphics rating (3.0). The system is fully capable of running Vista Aero and received a respectable 3.5 here. The other ratings were all very strong- processor: 4.8, RAM: 5.9, and hard drive: 5.6. These are thanks in no small small part to our test system’s upgrades in these areas.

The A61e currently has a base price of $399 (after a $50 rebate), but our model has more RAM, a higher capacity disk, and the upgraded processor. As tested this system came in at $799, which is not exactly the super affordable model that most people will be expecting, but it should give us a good idea of the top range of what the A61e has to offer.

Speak Your Mind

JoelGeek

they keep getting smaller and more powerful. Looks like a super powerful machine for driving some carputer-type stuff, too.

Matthew

I’d be a bit annoyed with not having a DVI connection on the back – it’s pretty much standard on all LCD panels now. Apart from that it sounds like a great second system for the home; especially as it is very quiet with that single fan.

Zeked

Aesthetically not as sterile as a Mac mini, and these looks are just fine with me. The price and power are decent, and if an OS refund on Vista were not such an ordeal – I’d buy a couple in a heart beat.

I gain a few centimeters all around and use off the shelf components, just to avoid Vista bundling.

Give us an option to un-bundle Vista, please.

Wonder if Lenovo could tell us how many pounds of carbon dioxide Vista creates versus Linux during a single year on this little beastie? Maybe a few too many in flight drinks between Boston and New York provoked the silly marketing.

Check Geek.com on Monday as there will be an item going up about Microsoft’s simplification of the downgrade route for business machines.

masterblaster

That thing is ugly like the arse end of a baboon

awesomeo

I hate these small PC’s. I’ve seen quite a few of them burn themselves out. I’ve also never been fond of ThinkCentre’s. They always look very cheap on the inside compared to what they cost.

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